Field of the Invention
This disclosure relates to methods of tracking and identifying foods and pharmaceuticals after consumption, particularly by screening biological samples for food and drug tags.
Background of the Invention
The consumption of drugs is largely untracked. This is problematic when dealing with issues that include drug addiction, drug compliance, and dosing control and adjustment. For example, it is difficult to assess whether an individual who is being treated with opioid replacement therapy (ORT) while being weaned off opioid use is consuming the prescribed longer acting but less euphoric opioid or has relapsed into using the drug of abuse. It is also difficult to interpret clinical studies when drug compliance of study subjects is inconsistent.
Furthermore, the consumption of food and other nutritional compounds is often desirable. This may be useful to confirm adherence to a prescribed diet or to confirm the source of food products. Often, it is useful to identify the source of food after a subject has consumed the food. For example, when a subject becomes ill and it is suspected that the cause is consumption of contaminated food, it may be desirable to identify the source of the food the subject consumed. In another example, when a food source that is used as an ingredient in other food products has been found to be contaminated, it is desirable to identify the downstream food products that were prepared using the contaminated batch of the original food source. In this example, only the downstream food products made from the contaminated food source may need to be destroyed while other batches of the product may be salvaged for safe use.
Furthermore, a contaminated original food source may be used to produce may different downstream food products. If multiple subjects become ill from consuming contaminated food products, the source of the illnesses may be identified by identifying a common original food source consumed by each subject, even though not all the subjects consumed the same end food product. In addition, the illness may be a reaction to a food allergy and the diagnosis may be made by identifying the components of the food product.
Tracking of food and drugs in the easily accessible biological samples is desirable, particularly when little or no sample processing is required. Tracking molecules with a known safety record are also desirable. A tracking molecule that is commonly added to food or pharmaceutical products and which has been studied with regard to its pharmacokinetics, stability, metabolism, and adverse effects would be an attractive candidate. In addition, a tracking molecule that may be detected in the human waste stream using noninvasive and well-established analytical methods would be useful.